In recent years, climate change concerns, reduction in costs, governmental initiatives, and other factors have driven a rapid rise in the adoption of distributed renewable energy generation systems (i.e., systems that generate energy using renewable resources such as solar, wind, fuel cells, geothermal, etc.) at residential and non-residential sites. Solar energy generation systems, in particular, have been very popular due to numerous advantages over other renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Solar energy generation systems include photovoltaic (PV) modules that generate power from the sun, and can provide the generated power to a utility grid or to one or more on-site loads. Some solar energy generation systems can store energy from the PV modules and/or utility grid in a battery for future use, and can receive power from the utility grid and re-route power to the one or more loads without having to use power generated from the PV modules or from energy stored in the battery.
As with any electrical system, electrical components are connected together via electrical connections. These electrical connections can be formed from a variety of different wires/cables and connectors. Successful operation of an energy generation system largely relies on the ability of its electrical connections to route power between the electrical components in the energy generation system without fault. Furthermore, the electrical components themselves also rely on the ability of the electrical connections to route power without fault. Some issues can occur when one or more cables are damaged during handling or installation of the energy generation system, or damaged from excessive wear and tear. These damaged areas can cause an electrical disturbance that can immediately cause, or build up to over time, a thermal event such as arcing or overheating when power is transmitted through the cable. The occurrence of such a thermal event can result in damage to one or more electrical components of the energy generation system. Thus, improvements to energy generation systems to minimize arcing are desired.